Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis was named an injury replacement for Team Canada. / Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

SOCHI, Russia - As disappointed as Steven Stamkos felt about missing the Olympics, he took some solace in knowing that his friend and Tampa Bay Lightning teammate Martin St. Louis is the man who replaced him.

When St. Louis didn't make the Canadian Olympic team on Jan. 7, he might have led the league in sympathy.

It's hard not to root for St. Louis. He is a fire hydrant-sized winger who was never drafted, and yet somehow he rose up to become a Hart Trophy winner (2004) and a two-time Art Ross Trophy winner (2004 and 2013). He's 38, and he's still among the league's most dangerous players.

On top of his statistics, he owns a reputation for being a quality teammate and person.

"I try to play the game the way I know how to play," St. Louis told reporters. "And if I impress the people along the way and I get supporters, that's great."

As NHL players and coaches are fond of saying, St. Louis plays the game the right way. He had also been snubbed in 2010, and he had made it one of his goals this season to make the Canadian team. You could almost hear the hockey world sigh when St. Louis wasn't named initially.

It felt like an injustice, even though Team Canada executive director Steve Yzerman and his selection committee had a thankless task of picking a team for a country that boasts enough top players to stock two medal-contending teams.

It seemed as if it would be an easy choice for Yzerman to name St. Louis because he was a high-performing player and because Yzerman is his general manager in Tampa Bay.

But Yzerman is highly principled man and when the committee decided, as a group, not to name St. Louis, he didn't allow his relationship with St. Louis to influence the process.

However, when doctors decided that Stamkos' broken leg was not fully healed, it was clear that St. Louis was the most logical replacement.

Stamkos was projected to be a scoring winger on the Canadian squad. And that also describes St. Louis, who has has eight goals and eight assists in his past 14 games. His quickness is perfect for the wider international ice surface.

The Canadians had other options, such as the Philadelphia Flyers' Claude Giroux. But Giroux plays center, and St. Louis is the more natural winger. St. Louis was the best choice and the sentimental choice.

Sentimentality undoubtedly had nothing to do with the choice. Anyone who knows Yzerman understands that's not how he operates. But Yzerman has to feel better today knowing that he won't go into the playoffs with one of his star players bitter about not making the Olympic team. St. Louis conceded at Thursday's news conference that he was bitter about the snub.

Stamkos' pullout was not unexpected. Team Canada officials knew all along that this was a possibility. You have to believe that Yzerman had this possible scenario in the back of his mind when he named the team.